Thumbs -- Published April 30, 2013

The next time you or your builder is chafed because some building inspector has slapped another requirement on your project, remember two words: Savar, Bangladesh.

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The next time you or your builder is chafed because some building inspector has slapped another requirement on your project, remember two words: Savar, Bangladesh.

It was in that city that an eight-story building collapsed, killing more than 380 and injuring as many as a 1,000 others. Workers, many making clothing for big U.S. firms, were ordered into the building to work Wednesday, even though cracks had developed in the concrete structure.

The collapse comes only five months after a garment factory fire killed 112 people in Bangladesh.

Thirteen days ago, a Texas fertilizer plant blew up, killing 14 people and injuring dozens. In the days ahead, building and safety inspectors will swarm through debris in West, Texas, trying to figure out why the blast occurred and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.

Building codes can't prevent every problem, but would you rather live in a home equipped with required smoke detectors or one without? Do you like it when your plumbing works and your lights come on?

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And on the subject of building and safety inspections, it's reassuring - if maddening - that apparently defective bolts have been found on the new multibillion-dollar eastern span of the San Francisco Bay Bridge. Think if they hadn't been.

Replacing the bolts, which should never have been used in the first place, likely will delay the bridge's planned Labor Day opening. But a delay is better than a tragedy, especially since Californians already have waited on the new bridge since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake uncovered serious defects in the existing bridge.

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Stockton Unified was having a pretty good year until a video Wednesday went viral showing a student and teacher in a fistfight at Chavez High School.

It is too early to say who's responsible - or most responsible - but it's not too early to suggest that neither the teacher nor the student was at the top of their game that day.

If praise is due, it goes to students in the class who jumped in and tried to separate the pair and called for help.

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The planned closing of two Central Valley Housing and Urban Development Department field offices lacks - oh, how to put this - a certain sensitivity.

The offices in Sacramento and Fresno, as well as one in San Diego, are among 16 nationwide HUD is shutting down. HUD operates 80 offices, and officials vow that Californians needing the department's help can be served by offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Santa Ana.

The last time we checked, those three cities were not ground zero in the housing meltdown.

Skedaddling out of the Valley does have one advantage for HUD: Its workers are less likely to have to look directly into the face of distressed homeowners seeking help.

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There was good news and bad news out of the Legislative Analyst's Office last week.

The good: The state is on track to receive about $4 billion more in tax revenues than anticipated.

The bad: The state is on track to receive about $4 billion more in tax revenues than anticipated.

The found money means more funding for education, hard hit during the Great Recession years. It also means that lawmakers are likely to come up with new spending schemes.

Gov. Jerry Brown vows to hold them in check, although this is the same guy gung-ho on multibillion-dollar projects like high-speed rail and boring twin tunnels beneath the Delta.